*Scroll down for a YouTube video
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Ashamed to say
I was one of those kids
Booing Bob Dylan
When he played his
Electric guitar
At a concert or Folk Festival
But see
He not only created a mood
But he made himself a model
For the Baby Boomer generation
With his acoustic guitar
And thrift store jeans & jacket
And words we’d never heard
Or read in a history book
So it was like meeting Dylan
And his wife Acoustic
We were best friends
But then he divorced her
Showed up at the house
With this trophy wife
Called Electric
And expected us to forget
About our old friend
And accept this new one
And some of us just weren’t
Going to have her in our own homes
I mean, can you imagine her singing
The edgy Ballad of Hollis Brown
In crackling electric?
No sound of fingers
Ferociously pressing frets
How do you build a mood
How do we see and hear
What Dylan did playing his
Lovely wife Acoustic?
But like divorced couples everywhere
We eventually split
Some admire Dylan so much
As did I
And we accepted the new wife Electric
And some didn’t
But if I was stuck on a deserted island
With an old record player
(And a source of electricity to plug it in)
Could pick two of his albums
No contest
Would be those early acoustic albums
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
And The Times They Are A Changin’
I guess that’s what he really meant
Time doesn’t stand still
Ever…
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© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: My Acoustic & Sons’ Electric
*YouTube Video Ballad of Hollis Brown
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